Getting Back to Normal

 Things are slowly getting back to normal. I think I finally have all the things in the yard back where they belong and I have picked up as much of the debris as I can. I also realized just how many things I have on timers in my house and that they all need to be reset before they will work again...not to mention that I have some kind of a mental block when it comes to understanding just how to work those things. Luckily my irrigation guy was set to come today for my autumn check-up or there would have been no sprinklers going off around here for awhile. Lol  I was behind on a lot of chores but I am slowly catching up on those as well so I thought this might be a good time to move into the dining room. I had grandiose plans for changing up this room this year. The problem was that I knew I wanted to change it but I didn't know to what. And so, with the interruptions of Helene, there was just no time to figure it out...maybe next year?

I did bring the "pumpkin man" back out this year...he hasn't made an appearance for awhile and I just felt like it was time for him to return. I actually thought I might hang him from the ceiling above the coffee table in the living room until I realized that he is not attractive when viewed from the back and there would be no way to hide that in the living room. I have so many fond memories of my two grandsons running back and forth through this when they were so much younger...who am I kidding? They'd probably still do it today. Lol

So that is the dining room for this year. I have a list of things I wanted to do today but, as I was perusing Pinterest, I happened upon a few water color pictures that caught my eye. For some reason, I am attracted to water color. I have tried my hand at it a few times but I wasn't very good so when I see something that someone else has done, I am usually impressed. I printed out these two pictures and am thinking I may try my hand at possibly just decoupaging them onto canvases today. We'll see where the day goes.

Stay safe and stay tuned.

Good-bye Milton!

 Wow! This was a scary one! Once again, my home town was lucky in that we didn't get anywhere near the hit that other parts of Florida received! The images are heart wrenching and, as with Helene, lives have been lost. Milton broke records in ways no one expected and many, many people will have many months, if not years ahead of them to try to rebuild!

I must give props to my city's debris pick-up people. Helene wasn't picked up immediately but when they saw that we were going to get hit with Milton, they actually had pick-ups last Sunday. And that was probably a good thing because it didn't take long to get the streets filled with the debris from Milton. I have already had the pick-up of one load and this is there waiting for the next crew to come through.

I have spent a good bit of my time since I got home getting the yard back into shape. I have picked up almost everything of any size and gotten all of the bird feeders, bird houses and other hanging things back to hanging. I got the fountains cleaned and back up and running as well as the pool but I still can't figure out how to reset the timer on my irrigation system...waiting for my grandson to bail me out. Lol

I've trimmed off the branches that got blown askew and I begrudgingly got all of the Halloween decorations put back up. I say begrudgingly because I wonder if I actually needed to take them all down in the first place. When my daughter was driving me home we took a ride through her neighborhood to see the damage and there were houses with those HUGE TALL skeletons still sitting where they were-of course, there was also a house with a big tree through its roof so I guess it was better to be safe than sorry.

I thought I would include another room in my house in this blog but I am tired and ready to call it a day so I will try to get back soon.

Just know that even though others in my family did get hit harder and have more significant damage to their homes, we are all safe and that is all that really matters. Stay safe and stay tuned,

Here We Go AGAIN!!!

So, my outside Halloween decorations have been up for less than three days and it looks like they will be coming down soon! Either I take them down or "Milton" might. Yes, we have another hurricane coming to Florida and this one looks to be going straight across the state. Of course, it is still just a bit too early to tell exactly where it will come in but even if it deviates a bit, my county is expecting a lot of wind and with that probably power outages. Putting up those heavy decorations was rough this year so I am really tempted to wait until I know it is for sure going to be really windy here but, we also have predictions for lots of heavy rain for all of the days leading up to landfall so I probably should do it before it gets really wet out there!

In any case, I need some distraction from all of the predictions coming this way so why don't we go into the kitchen while I'm here?

I still love my little jack-o-lantern pot that I found many years ago at my Hallmark Store. I really miss that store-they had so many fun holiday decorations that you couldn't find anywhere else!

 

I brought this witch back to the party. My youngest grand daughter just loves her because she is sound activated and starts cackling and lighting up every time there is a noise in the kitchen. I stopped putting her out a few years ago in one of my "simplify" attempts and just didn't bring her back. But then the other day as I was decorating I saw her at the bottom of a Rubbermaid and decided it was time for her to make a reappearance! Presley will be so excited!

So that is the kitchen for this year. I guess I'll go check the weather once again. My checking it every five minutes probably won't have any effect on its changing for the better but.... Stay safe and stay tuned.

Another One of "Those" Days

 So, after five days of blood, sweat and almost tears-aka Halloween decorating-I decided to give myself the day off. Since it's Friday, that makes it an even better day. I knew I wasn't going to do anything I didn't want to do so that sure limited my to-do list. Lol But, I'm not one to just sit around all day either so I went looking for any little thing I have been thinking about that I now had the time for. The two things I've come up with so far are really a stretch but they make me happy. 

The first involves one of the velvet pumpkins that I made many, many years ago. They were all the rage back then and I wanted to make some in every color. The only problem was that I live in a relatively small city and velvet was not easy to come by back then. I thought I was lucky to find what I did-and, this was before the age of shopping on Amazon.

I made them in gold, brown, evergreen, beige and orange-bright orange. And, of course, I made more orange than the other colors. I have used them in many different ways over the years but that bright orange has always bothered me. Then, I happened upon a post on Pinterest that had beautiful velvet pumpkins to buy and there it was! Just the prettiest rusty kind of orange that I wanted. And so, I decided to try giving just one of my orange pumpkins a coffee bath. I chose one the size that I had multiples of just in case something went wrong. But, it did exactly what I wanted...it toned it down just enough. Since I am not using the velvet pumpkins in my Halloween decor, I just did the one but if they come back out for Thanksgiving I will be setting up an assembly line. 

In these pictures the change is subtle but in person it is perfect! It is just a richer orange!

And then as I was putting a small ceramic cauldron onto the shelf, I realized that I don't really use it as a serving piece-although it would be perfect for a dip-because I have so many other things I use. And then it hit me! Why not swap out the little vintage witch that I did in a $Tree cauldron for this one? This would definitely give the piece more presence and I thought it might appear more permanent than the little plastic one-and I was right.

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

I don't know why that makes me so happy but it does! So that's it. I think I will now give myself permission to sit down, put my feet up and watch a movie! Stay safe and stay tuned.

Holy Heat Batman!!!

 So today was THE day! I promised myself...and I told you all yesterday so I couldn't go back on my word. But, I don't think it has ever taken me so long to finish a cup of coffee because I said to myself "you'll get started as soon as you finish this coffee". The job doesn't get harder but for some reason (lol) it takes me longer and longer every year. I know the real reason-again, lol-but this year I am also blaming the heat! It is still SOOOO HOT out there! It took me 2 1/2 hours this time but I am done. That being said, this might be the last year for the trellis. Three of the cross braces are broken and I have tried to jerry rig them before and it's not working so, unless I can come up with a better idea, it may be time to lay it to rest. And then there is this:

The garland just sheds and sheds as I am putting it up-don't know how many years it has left either. I will take some more pictures when the sun isn't shining at the camera but for now, this is where we are...and I am still alive.

I always get a little melancholy when I look at that trellis because for years and years I took pictures of my grand children in witch hats under that thing. It started with one and went all the way up to seven and still we were good. Until one day we weren't because we realized that they had all grown so much that even if we doubled our row they all still weren't going to fit under there and we had to move out by the sign. I truly can't believe where time goes...and it goes much too quickly!!

And I realized that I didn't show you a good picture of where my new raven ended up. I absolutely LOVE him here. It is like he was just made for this spot. He sits on there perfectly. I've always had a raven here but it has always been one of those little inexpensive ones that I bought at Michaels...and I always had the hardest time finding a way to wire his feet in place where he wouldn't keep falling over. This guy is just perfect!! Meant to be!!! Serendipity!!!

So with that, I am officially finished with the decorating...guess I had better get going on moving autumn back into the garage...and in closets...and under beds...well, you know. Stay safe and stay tuned.

And Off We Go!

 I finally have all of the inside decorated for Halloween BUT, I still don't have all of the autumn packed up and put away just yet and I don't have the outside decorated. Outside is a big job and best to start early in the morning and today I had to wait for the pest control guy to arrive and didn't want to be in dirt up to my knees when he did and so, it will have to wait until tomorrow.

My plan had been to simplify (we all know how long that lasted-lol) and change things up this year but, changing things up takes a LOT of time and with everything going on this year with the heat and Helene the only things that got changed were me finding places for the new crafts I had done and then possibly some other things moving for that to happen. In any case, we'll start with the living room and pick up outside when we can.

This is where I put the new "witch sign" and the little vintage cauldron scene.

I really tried to cut back on the photos-I actually thought I may forgo this bunch altogether but I just couldn't do it-too many fun memories! The couch table holds photos of our family costume parties...

...while this table has some of our witch and Witch Tea photos.

So that is pretty much it for the living room right now. I still have some tweaking to do but I think this room will probably stay as is.

Going to hit the ground running in the morning but may not be able to stand up straight by afternoon-lol-so we'll see when I'll be back. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.